Monday, July 2, 2018

R.I.P.: Alan Longmuir, Co-Founder of Bay City Rollers

Alan Longmuir, a founding member of the Bay City Rollers, died early Monday after a brief illness, according to the BBC.

Alan Longmuir

The group were a pop sensation in the mid-1970s — a Tartan-clad early boy band who played up their Scottishness — via a series of chart-topping U.K. singles like “Bye Bye Baby” and “Shang-a-Lang,” and their U.S. breakthrough, “Saturday Night,” which hit No. 1 in 1976.

According to Variety, Longmuir formed the band, initially called the Saxons, in Edinburgh in 1966 with his younger sibling and drummer Derek. The group’s best-known lineup, which featured McKeown and guitarists Eric Faulkner and Stuart Wood as well as the Longmuirs, came together early in 1974.

According to legend, the group chose its name by throwing a dart at a map, which landed on Bay City, Michigan. At the peak of their success the group had their own television show and a fanbase known as the “Tartan Horde.”